Goertz still the choice with Vandersteen?

Yup, listen to Johnny. He's the best in the country, other than Mr Vandersteen in setting them up. He sells the AQ's with them because he knows how neutral they are and how great they sound together. All of us who own the Vandy's have posted about using AQ and we do it for a reason. Also, keep the runs as short as possible. Less than 8' will sound best if you are able to set your system up that way. Most any of their DBS cables will sound awesome.

Keeping it simple is usually best. Let us know what you will do.

AQ is one of the most neutral out there and that's what a properly built and designed speaker needs. Vandersteen's fit that bill (as do others). In speaking with an audio engineer/designer, he said that he's had many of the top named cables on his bench and many couldn't even pass a square wave. They clipped them and it didn't matter what materials were used, they just weren't designed properly. Two of the four important things to think about with cables are:
1. can they pass a square wave
2. will they keep the time alignment between all frequencies.

The problem with any DIY silver cable that folks talk about is that you are getting your wire from someone else so that means you don't know how it was drawn and handled. That's a major problem with silver wire. If silver isn't worked properly, you will get what we in the 90's said was a hot wire. It can sound amazing if used correctly, but very few DIY's can work it properly and that also means consistently as they just aren't set up for it.

There are plenty of cables that sound awesome in one aspect, but not in another and that ruins the sound of great components. You are dealing with different needs between frequencies, so a company that gets bass right and isn't getting mids AND highs correct makes no sense if you are trying to max out your speaker purchase.

JMHO

Bomb, yes the conversation lasted an hour at least. I don't think I said more than ten words during the whole conversation. I know that he was talking about being able to take four measurements that are basic physics. I'm sure that you know what they are, but I'm sorry I don't. I could have sworn he said square wave and he did talk about capacitance of the cable being as low as possible and he spoke about using various materials to shield the cables. He then spoke about finishing the connections properly so that you don't loose information there. I am sure you are correct in regards to phase alignment. For some reason I thought he said time alignment also, but you would know more than I based on your response.

As for silver, I do understand enough metallurgy to realize that if the wire isn't handled properly, it won't sound good no matter what you do with it. I know some smaller manufacture's of silver cable who know how to use it, but I've only found one who I trust and in the end, I need a totally neutral cable for my system as I've spent way too much getting my components correct. The AQ DBS cables work really well as others have said and there is a reason that nearly every VAndy dealer sells them. Just getting back on track of the thread, but thanks for your response and clearing up a few things in my post.

Guys, thanks for clarification. THe conversations I have with this guy are always above my level, but I understand the gist of it. I'll try to be more careful in the future when posting, but I'm glad some of you folks kind of knew what I was trying to say. For some reason, cables have always had a dark cloud around them. I think it's in part because folks don't usually listen to them side by side and just take others words as gospel. Just interesting to me.